Silkroad Online Forums

Hi, guys. I had a quick question for those of you who are a little more computer savvy out there.

I'm designing a newsletter for the company that I work for. However, my boss wants me to do a few things.
One of the biggest problems that I have is that I have to have pictures in it, but not make it a picture file, if that makes any sense.

For example, here is a sample e-mail.


See, it has a background of pictures and stuff, but all that text that you see you can highlight.

Now, I'm making my newsletter on Photoshop. It looks like this so far:


The only thing is, when I save it, it's a complete picture file - meaning, I can't add hyperlinks and people can't highlight the text. Furthermore, most emails require you to press a button that says something like, "Show this picture" for you to see it. That's a big problem, because statistically, when most people see a button that says that, they don't even bother and just move on.


How can I make newsletters like the first one? Should I even be using Photoshop?

Thanks, guys. (: I really appreciate it.

They are made with html, its just like a webpage.

Kinda depends on what your boss wants to do with it. Publish on a website? Then like the above poster said, HTML document. I'd use MSWord because I paid money for it and it works well enough but Photoshop works too.

If he wants to actually print the newsletter, convert it to a Adobe PDF file, yes? You're already using Adobe Photoshop, check out the Adobe PDF (Printable Document Format) maker. You'll be surprised how much you use it.

Okay. Thanks, guys.
I guess I better go learn HTML then. Is it hard?

What programs do you have to do your design? Do you have MS Word? If you do insert the pictures in the document and it will EMBED them. If you LINK a picture to a document you have to have the pic file available. You want to find a World Processing Package you can embed your images into.

Or if .PDF is a good format, like Grandpa said, when you are done just output to PDF. A Word Processing program like Word is going to give you the most flexibility though. (and keep it simple)

Of course I have Word.
But I'm creating a newsletter that I send through e-mail, which is the thing.

It's not for a website. It's for a newsletter that goes through the e-mail.

Would Word still work? Learning HTML seems like a bit of a hassle.

Thanks, everyone.

Yes, Word will work, but what email program do you use? Outlook? Some corporations use better, I'm not familiar with all of them but you should be able to send your Word Documents as attachments easy enough.

I'm using Group-Mail. It's like Outlook, but it's just a mass-mailing program. E-mailing things are the same, though.

The thing is, I don't want to send it as an attachment. When they clcik on it, I want them to see it, if that makes sense.

I could just send everything as a picture file, like mine on the original post. But if I did, then they wouldn't be able to highlight the text / click on links, among other problems.

Thanks so much, Grandpa. (:

HTML is very simple. Especially if you use the basic MS FrontPage application.

Use MS Frontpage, it will do the HTML thing for u

I'm trying to use Word. But when I export it to an HTML file, and send it as an attachment, it shows up (obviously) as an attachment.
How can I send it directly so it shows up right when you click the e-mail?

Get the slice tool, make segments of what you want to edit .. liek cut out the picture .. make a seperate segamtn for text.

Then save it all as html- images.

It should be saved into a file with .. well depending on how many slices you made maybe 5-10.
Simply open it up into somethign user friendly liek Dreamweaver and there you go.
The borders might get mixed up .. if so use:


<a href="XXXX.html"><img src="images/XXXXX.XXX" width="XXX" height="XXX" border="0" alt=""></a>

The border bit is pretty important if you want to keep it the same as what you expected it too look like. Otherwise it distorts and looks ugly.

Sorry for typo's .. I just cba it's too late.

Oh lawd, noobs ITT. Either do it Crumpets' way, or learn HTML/CSS. It's good to know HTML/CSS these days anyway.

Any font that isn't Times, sans-serif, fixed-width, or similar should be replaced with a standard font regardless of whether you do it in Word/Frontpage/Notepad, or placed in an image. If you want your fancy typography to be highlightable, you'll have to position and set the text through CSS. Otherwise, just slice up the images and let the copy do the talking. There is copy to go along with the newsletter right?

PS: I have no experience in designing newsletters for commercial purposes whatsoever. Only a fool would take my post for advice.

lol! i learned html when i was 10 it's simple but you need to learn about css for a professional looking site and i always get bored after reading 1 sentence in any tutorial

now i just do web graphics for fun for friends' site and forums

i use macromedia series cause those programs are focused on web design than graphic design
dreamweaver is the best web design tool ever, it includes tutorial and auto finishes commands and it can detect coding errors too and it's colour coded

Quoting:
"So, you've crafted a super-cool HTML document that you want to use as a newsletter template in GroupMail. This tutorial will show you how to import an HTML document into GroupMail and save it as a template to use later."

How to import a HTML document into Group Mail:
http://group-mail.com/asp/common/articles.asp?id=247

Sounds like your boss wants you to do professional work (for free) ... my advice is, "Ask for a raise" I've not used Group Mail before but the tutorials found above looked promising. Good luck to you! GroupMail is essentially a database management tool to manage mailing lists. I have no direct experience in it, but maybe you can find somebody who knows how to do what you want on one of their forums? Try the built in Rich Text (HTML) support ~~> you should be able to add images and formatted text to your messages.

Crumpets "Photoshop Slice Tool" sounds promising, but I'm a total Photoshop newb (sorry).

~Granps (I'll look for ya, post again later - sorry if this is a wild goose chase, trying to help, you know)

omg dont do html thats horrible


use InDesign, thats what its for

this topic made me rofl.

I thought InDesign was meant for print.

How so?

Internal mod discussion.

@fena
Hah I'm using Group mail as well for my work

So anyway, how'd it go Fena ?


P.s. Can't help but see how familiar your girlfriend looks to that R'n'B star Maya.